Twins hit three homers to defeat Yankees, 6-1

NEW YORK — Before Friday night's game, the Yankees received encouraging reports on their injured sluggers. It was welcome news as the Bronx Bombers had morphed into a bunch of singles hitters.

Mark Teixeira was back in the lineup after missing three games with inflammation in his surgically repaired right wrist, and Carlos Beltran had no discomfort in his right elbow after taking batting practice. He may avoid surgery to remove a bone spur, which would sideline him six to eight weeks.

But it was the light-hitting Minnesota Twins who put on a power display as they belted three homers off lefty starter Vidal Nuno while the small-ball playing Yankees ran themselves out of a pair of scoring chances in a 6-1 loss at Yankee Stadium before 42,245 fans.

The Yankees have hit just four homers in their past 12 games.

"I thought about this the other day," manager Joe Girardi said. "We had 12 hits (against the Cardinals on Wednesday), one double and 11 singles. I was thinking back a couple of years and people asked, ‘Well, all you do is score runs with home runs. What are you going to do when you don’t hit home runs?

"Now, we’re hitting singles and I’m being asked why we’re not hitting home runs. The bottom line is scoring runs. This isn’t a lineup that’s filled with a ton of power. We’re going to have to put hits together. We’re going to have to score different ways. You have to be able to go first to third."

Compounding matters is the fact that speed isn’t exactly the Yankees’ forte and a pair of base-running blunders doomed them.

With the Yankees (28-25) trailing 4-1 in the fifth inning, Derek Jeter singled to right but got caught in a rundown when Brett Gardner was held up at third by third-base coach Rob Thomson and Jeter took a wide turn at first. Gardner was eventually tagged out in his own rundown.

Then, in the sixth inning, Brian Roberts was thrown out at home plate trying to score from second on a single to right field by Yangervis Solarte.

Teixeira, who has a team-high nine homers in 36 games, went 0-for-1 with three walks and a strikeout.

The Twins (25-27), who entered the game ranked 26th in the majors in homers (39) and losers of six of seven, hit three home runs in a game for the first time this season. And none of them were cheap.

Oswaldo Arcia hit a solo blast into the second deck in right field in the second inning. In the fourth, Josh Willingham launched a bases-empty shot into left-center, just beyond the 399-foot sign, and Trevor Plouffe hit a towering, two-run homer into Monument Park, over the 408-foot marker.

It was a forgettable night for Nuno (1-2), who is one of the Yankees’ three replacement starters. He allowed seven hits and four runs in 6⅔ innings while striking out six and not walking a batter.

"When (Nuno) made a mistake, they hit it out of the ballpark," Girardi said.

Nuno said he left his fastball up in the zone a couple of times and the Twins made him pay.

"These are big-league hitters," Nuno said. "I left it a little bit up and they took advantage of it. I just have to limit that damage."

Twins right-hander Ricky Nolasco (3-5), who entered the game with a 6.12 ERA, limited the Yankees to one run and seven hits over six innings, with three strikeouts and four walks. He had allowed 10 homers in 10 starts.

‘There are a lot of ways to score runs," Gardner said. "When you don’t hit it over the fence, you have to find ways to manufacture runs."